Hair curler



. 0d. 14, 1941. YATES 2,258,920

HAIR CURLER Filed Oct. 14, 1940 INVENTOR. GEORGE 1 2755,

ATTORNEY Patented Oct. 14, 1941 UNITED STATES 1 oerioe George: Yates,Glendale, Calif-., assignor-:toltoss MacFadden,Hollywood, Calif.

Application October 14, 1940, Serial'No. 361,018

2 Claims.

This invention relates to hair curlersv of, the type wherein the-hairisdried by air contact. Curlers of this type. are often applied to thehair while the hair is moist. and. removed when. the hairis dry. As thistakes considerable time, even when artificial drying means. are.utilized, itjis desirable to provide a. curler whichewill' allow asrapid. dryingv of the hair coiled. thereon as is possible.

Due to, the nature of. human hair and. its tendency to split and crackwhen subjected. to mechanical abuse, asby. being kept tightly coiled andmoist over too long a period, or by being nicked or scratched by sharpedges or corners. on the conventional type of hair. curlers, it. is.also desirable to-provide a curler which wil1 minimize such cracking orsplitting.

Curlers which are in the form of cylinders having. perforations-thereinhave atendency to catch the hair of the innermost layer wound thereon,so that when. the curler is removed by sliding it axially of the curltheinnermost layer tends to stick to the curler and thus pull out of the,interior of the curl, the result beingv that the configuration of thecurl is spoiled.

It'is, therefore, afurther object of thisinvention to provide'a curlerin which the inner. layer of hair does not separate from the outerlayers during removal from. the curl.

It is a further object of this invention to pro- .vide a curler whichexposes a relatively large amount: of hair to the circulation of air.

It is a further object of this invention to provide a. curler in which.the coil of hair thereon has a substantial portion of its inner surfaceex.- posed to circulation of air.

It is a further object of this. invention. to'provide a curler whichobtains the above advantages and at the same time causes a minimum ofdiscomfort to the wearer.

It is a further object of this invention to provide a curler which maybe readily removed from the curl.

It is a further object of this invention to provide a curler ofresilient construction which is characterized by the above objects.

This invention possesses many other advantages and has other objectswhich may be made more easily apparent from a consideration of severalembodiments of the invention. For this purpose there are shown a fewforms in the drawing accompanying and forming part of the presentspecification. These forms will now be described in detail, illustratingthe general principles of this invention; but it is to be understoodthatthis'detailjed description is not to be taken in a.limiting sense,since the scope of the invention is;;best"defined by the appendedclaims.

Referring to. the drawing? 7 Figure I"shows' acurler embodying thepresent invention, with; the clamp in open position;

Figure 2*is a..view oflthe curler shown in Figure 1 with theclampinclosed. position; I Figure 3gis an enlarged'transverse section takenon line 3"3 of Figure l; v. g

Figure- 4 is asection similar to-Fi'gure 3 of a modifiedf'ormof theinvention;

Figure fiishowsi a further modification of the curlercontemplated by theinvention; and,

Figure 6 is. anenlarged transverse section taken on..lin'e Yu -Bibi.Figure 5.

The curlershown'in Figures 1 to 3 consists of a body member I ll and, aclamp member H pivoted. together. This is to allow the clamp member.tobe pivoted to. aposition engaging the coil of. hair on thebody. memberin. a.manner wellunderstoodin the art. The body member IOIis preferablyformed. of resilient material. such as. rubber or. the like andhaslongitudinal grooves I.2.therein, thus formingridges I 3. Theseridgeshave. been-showmashaving a rather small area in contact with the. hairHi wound upon the body of the curler It hasbeenfou-nd-that when thebody. is made of rubber or some similar material the friction betweenthe .body of the curler and the hairvhas a tendency tocausedisarrangement of the curlas the curleris removed by axialmovement. The use of ridges having a comparatively smallsurfaceimcontact with the hair wound on the bodyv of; the I curler;decreases the likelihood of suchdisarrangement as the curler is removed.

If desired, the. body portion Ill maybe formed by any. well knownextrusion process. It is not, absolutely necessary that the body portionH) be formed of resilient material, a rigid material such as aluminum orany of the numerous rigid plastics may be employed, although resilientmaterial is preferred for reasons which will presently appear. The bodyportion H! has a longitudinal bore [4 formed therein and a plurality ofholes or openings l5 extending through the walls of the body portion It)to the exterior thereof. As

shown in Figure 3, these holes or openings are present only in thevalleys of the grooves in the body. This is because it has been foundthat the holes or openings if present in portions engaged by the hair ofthe user have a tendency to cause splitting thereof, and further theseholes as mentioned above have a tendency to catch the hair wound overthem and cause the curl to pull out of shape when the curler is removed.By providing the holes or openings [5 in the valleys of the grooves l2they will be clear of hair wound on the body II] as shown in Figure 3and thus will not cause such splitting, cracking, or disarrangement ofthe curl upon removal of the curler. At the same time, placing theopenings I5 in the bottom of the grooves I2 prevents the hair wound uponthe body portion In from closing the openings and thus preventingcirculation except through a very small restricted portion of the hair.It will be noted that the grooves extend the entire length of the bodyportion Ill. With this construction there is no possibility of hairblocking circulation along the grooves and thus an increased drying rateis obtained by reason of this circulation under all conditions of use.

The clamp member Il may be formed of a piece of wire having a sinuousportion lfi intended to engage the body portion III. This sinuousportion [6 is intended to enter one end of the bore M of the body NJ.The end of the clamp member which is pivoted to the body l may besecured thereto in any suitable manner. In the form shown in Figure 2the ends of the clamp are formed with offset portions Il passing throughthe walls of the body member ID and secured therein. These ofisetportions 11 engage the inner surface of the bore of the body member andthus prevent the withdrawal of the ends of the clamp member from thebody member. If the body member be made of resilient material, thesoffset portions engaging the inner walls of the bore will tend toresiliently hold the legs of the clamp member in providing a lacquercoating or the like to prevent rust from affecting the hair on thecurler.

If the body of the curler is formed of rigid material, it may have across-section similar to that shown in Figure 4. Such a body member maybe extruded or drawn in the shape shown, or may b formed by rollinggrooves l2 into a cylindrical tube, to give it the cross-section shown.This form may also have openings [5 communicating between the bottoms ofthe grooves l2 and the hollow interior I4 of the body member.

Figures 5 and 6 show a further form or modification of this invention.The characteristic which diiferentiates this form from that of Figure lis the lack of a central bore. When this bore is omitted the grooves 20in the body memher 2! may be considerably deeper as shown by comparingFigures 3 and 6, which allows a greater circulation of air along thelength of the grooves. Of course, the holes l5 are absent in this formas there is no central bore to which they may be connected. The form ofpivot connection between the clamp 22 and the body 21 cannot be as shownin Figure 2 but will necessarily be simply a right-angled bend on eachleg of the clamp member 22. It may be necessary to employ considerablyheavier wire with this form in order that the clamp may be securely heldin place. In order to provide a recess for the portion 23 of the clampmember a place. It has been found that when an attempt is made to closethe clamp member over too large a coil of hair wound upon the bodymember, the legs of the clamp tend to spring out of place. On the otherhand, when the resilient side walls of the body member are employed ofthe body Ill the same operation can be performed by bending the bodyportion I0 so that the portion I6 may be inserted in the bore. In fact,it is not even necessary that the clamp member be formed of wire orother resilient material and it could be readily formed of a singlepiece of plastic or thelike, considerablylarger in cross-section buthaving the same functions as a wire clamp member would have. The use ofsuch plastic material avoids the necessity of depression 24 has beenindicated in the free end of the body member to serve the function ofthe bore [4 in retaining the clamp member in place.

The grooves 20 extend entirely along the body It, thereby permitting thefree circulation of air underneath the coil of hair on the curler.

I claim:

1. In a hair curling device, an elongated body member adapted to receivehair wound thereon, said member having a plurality of concavities in itsperiphery extending along its entire length, whereby to permitcirculation through said concavities and on the inner side of a coil ofhair wound thereon. I

2. In a hair curling device, an elongated body member adapted to receivehair wound thereon,

said member having a plurality of concavities in its periphery extendingalong its entire length, said member having a bore extending through itsentire length, and a plurality of openings extending transversely of thelength of the body member from the bottom of said concavities to thbore, whereby the edges of said openings are out of contact with hairwound upon the body member and air is free to circulate through the boreand the concavities.

GEORGE YATES.

